Being a coward and bashing someone at a pub should get you banned for life

In this day and age, when we’ve seen the devastation and heartbreak caused by alcohol-fuelled violence a million times over, it’s past time we held people properly accountable for their sh---y behaviour on nights out. Tell us what you think by voting in our poll:

The coward convicted of bashing another person at the Jockey Club Hotel should consider himself lucky to be allowed in any pub ever again.

The Mary Valley teenager who ganged up with his dad to bash another person at the Jockey Club Hotel should consider himself lucky ever to be allowed in a Gympie region pub again.

Cody James Kelly and his dad were already in the wrong when they tried to get into the pub; they’d already been kicked out of the Phoenix Hotel for poor behaviour earlier that night.

Cody Kelly banned from Gympie pubs after Jockey Club brawl

But as a court heard this week, they managed to compound that with a cowardly, pathetic two-on-one attack that undoubtedly would have ruined plenty more nights than theirs.

Kelly was fined $800 and banned from drinking at any pub in the 4570 postcode, but there was no conviction recorded.

Cody Kelly has banned from every pub in the 4570 postcode for one year.

The court was not even told whether Kelly’s father has been charged over the incident.

In this day and age, when we’ve seen the devastation and heartbreak caused by alcohol-fuelled violence a million times over, it’s past time we held people properly accountable for their sh---y behaviour on nights out.

Nobody deserves to be constantly looking over their shoulders, worried some gronk is going to start throwing hands at people just because they’re angry drunks.

Everyone deserves the right to feel safe on a night out, without fear they’ll become the next victim of someone who can’t handle the drink.

And at the more serious end we should not forget someone like Kieran Loveridge, who took an 18-year-old kid away from his family in the most senseless way.

Once the punches start flying, all bets are off.

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And you’re not just damaging your victim in a physical way, often they’ll have to live with the mental nightmares long after the visible bruises have faded.

If you can’t control yourself or keep your hands off other people when you’re out, you probably shouldn’t be allowed out at all.